Tommy Bell, 28, must also perform 80 hours of community service and pay $1,700 in restitution.
Bill Katin, who owned the three dogs killed Oct. 4, 2009, addressed his neighbor, Bell, before State Court Judge Irma Glover on Tuesday morning.
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| Bill Katin and his daughter, Ashley Katin, hold pictures of their dogs Sandy, a 14-year-old golden retriever and Labrador mix; Gio, a 5-year-old chihuahua; and Leo, a 9-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, who were killed when two pit bulls jumped a fence and attacked them. |
“Whatever happens to you and the court’s decision, the judge’s decision and punishment, eventually that’s going to go away for you,” Katin said. “But this will never go away for me, this loss. This feeling of loss I’ve experienced day in and day out — for the rest of my life will never go away. And I think it’s important that you understand the impact not only on me, but on my family and my household, that I can no longer go out on my back deck at my household and look out there and not see my three family members there anymore.”
Bell waived his right to a jury trial on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to three counts of animal cruelty under the state code for the deaths of Katin’s three dogs: Sandy, a 14-year-old golden retriever mix; Leo, a 9-year-old Jack Russell terrier; and Gio, a 5-year-old Chihuahua. He also read a statement to the court detailing his own frustration with the situation.
“Out of 28 years, I never thought at all about being incarcerated over a love you and I both share, and that’s a love for animals,” Bell said. “I sincerely apologize now that hopefully we can move forward and understand that community service, me being banned from animals, and the 80 hours of community service probation. I technically don’t feel it’s fair, but I think it’s right being that you have suffered great pain behind this situation.”
“I really want you to understand that I do apologize and this is truly, truly an accident, and going forth, I pray I hope that nothing like this should ever happen again, and I hope that you will sincerely accept my apology,” Bell went on to say.
Katin later shook Bell’s hand.
But Judge Glover took issue with Bell’s statement.
“Mr. Bell, this is pretty gruesome,” said Glover, who also ordered Bell to have no contact with the Katin family and barred him from owning any animals. “I don’t really care how unfair you think it is. … Well, I’m sorry, sir, that you feel that way, but this could have been a person, a human being.”
Prosecutor Melissa Rife said the state charges, which Bell pleaded guilty to, are stiffer than the county ordinance. For instance, the cruelty to animals charge under the county ordinance brings a maximum sentence of 60 days jail with a $1,000 fine, compared to violation under state code, which carries a maximum sentence of 12 months in jail with a $1,000 fine.
Cobb Board of Commissioner Chairman Tim Lee said he believed the county ordinance pertaining to animal cruelty was sufficient given that the county can make use of both the ordinance and state law, depending on the merits of the case.
“That’s always available to us,” Lee said, noting that his staff would continue to monitor the ordinance to ensure that it was satisfactory.
The resolution of the case, Rife said, “was one that the victim was very involved in and very satisfied with, and that’s what we wanted.”
Katin said Bell initially insisted Bell’s girlfriend owned the dogs, which is why the case has dragged on.
“I knew the day of the incident that those were his dogs, but I wanted other people in the neighborhood to corroborate this story so it wouldn’t just be my word against his,” Katin said. “Personally, I don’t wish any ill will. Yes, I wish he would have manned up much earlier on and said, ‘Mr. Katin, I’m sorry for what’s happened.’ I may have had a different attitude.”
Katin had arrived home on that morning to find his three dogs dead. The attacks happened inside the fenced back yard of his home, in an older subdivision off of Macedonia Road.
A Cobb County Police officer shot and killed one of the pit bulls when it lunged at an Animal Control officer.
The second pit bull has been held by Animal Control since the incident and will not be returning to Bell. Its fate has yet to be decided by the court.
(The Marietta Daily Journal - June 29, 2011)
